(YEG) Edmonton International Airport Part 4 (October 2023)

[CMD UW]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

^lack of demand/yields from the business community?

Every flight I took from YEG-YVR on AC over the past 12-months was essentially full with no empty seats in Business. Should have nothing to do with demand imo.

[OilCity98]

Was AC not operating YYC-SFO a few years ago in place of the now 2x daily mainline UA?

[zahav]

AC downgauged or cut a significant amount of flights across its network for winter, with the hubs getting it worse. Many US flights cut for the winter entirely, with the CRJs moved to routes like YVR-YEG, plus CRJs replacing mainline on several YVR-USA routes. Then the mainline planes redirected to places like Mexico and Florida I guess, since those areas seem to be where the growth is. But I have been involved in airports for several decades+, and YVR-YEG has always bounced around between mainline and some Jazz (and before, Zip). Its relatively short distance, as well as always being a route that several carriers have a good presence on (AC and WS obviously, and then the Jetsgos and Flairs filling in the rest). Don't read too much into this winter's "downgrade" it is pretty normal and a sign they want to keep up the presence, but those larger jets can be better used for Tulum in winter

[Coldrsx]

Originally Posted by CMD UW

Every flight I took from YEG-YVR on AC over the past 12-months was essentially full with no empty seats in Business. Should have nothing to do with demand imo.

You move resources around to make the best use of them.

My dad regularly flies business YVR-YEG-YVR and is almost always upgraded, no yield increase.

[YegFan]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

You move resources around to make the best use of them.

My dad regularly flies business YVR-YEG-YVR and is almost always upgraded, no yield increase.

Well...that's a very narrow way of looking at things. maybe no yield increase, but more loyalty toward the brand and future revenue.

[hollywoodcory]

Originally Posted by OilCity98

Was AC not operating YYC-SFO a few years ago in place of the now 2x daily mainline UA?

Pre-covid both UA and AC flew YYC-SFO 2x daily. AC briefly resumed the route, and I believe there was at least one summer they both operated the route before AC eventually dropped it.

[Coldrsx]

Originally Posted by YegFan

Well...that's a very narrow way of looking at things. maybe no yield increase, but more loyalty toward the brand and future revenue.

Missing the point.

[Archyron]

It appears that the AC YEG-SFO is being downgraded from year-round to seasonal, commencing in October.

As a semi-regular user of this route, since I live in SF, and come back to family in Edmonton + prefer direct, this is a shame. Given I keep a close eye on this route I may have a couple insights to share here. There are a few different factors coming into play from my perspective.

1. Over the past two years AC has had some downward pricing pressure on this route. First via Flair and this summer via Westjet. They used to hold a total monopoly over the direct route and were commanding a premium price for the direct connection before. Flights on this route are very affordable these days along with the extra competition.
2. As an addendum to the point above, I think its been difficult for AC to compete on price point or experience on this route because they run a CRJ-900 aircraft. Competitors are running newer 737-800 aircraft with presumably better fuel efficiency.
3. Tech is on a cyclical downturn and one of the first things to go for many companies is reducing business class travel if possible.
4* Was also going to add that runway construction at SFO has been causing regular delays for this and similar flights the past few months, but it looks like that capacity bottleneck is now removed.

Anyway, probably some combination of all of these. Will see in a week what the load is like when I fly this route back home

[EdmTrekker]

Originally Posted by Archyron

As a semi-regular user of this route, since I live in SF, and come back to family in Edmonton + prefer direct, this is a shame. Given I keep a close eye on this route I may have a couple insights to share here. There are a few different factors coming into play from my perspective.

1. Over the past two years AC has had some downward pricing pressure on this route. First via Flair and this summer via Westjet. They used to hold a total monopoly over the direct route and were commanding a premium price for the direct connection before. Flights on this route are very affordable these days along with the extra competition.
2. As an addendum to the point above, I think its been difficult for AC to compete on price point or experience on this route because they run a CRJ-900 aircraft. Competitors are running newer 737-800 aircraft with presumably better fuel efficiency.
3. Tech is on a cyclical downturn and one of the first things to go for many companies is reducing business class travel if possible.
4* Was also going to add that runway construction at SFO has been causing regular delays for this and similar flights the past few months, but it looks like that capacity bottleneck is now removed.

Anyway, probably some combination of all of these. Will see in a week what the load is like when I fly this route back home

Thanks for posting. Look forward to your post on the load.

[ace.yyc]

It's always worth mentioning that Jazz is really hurting for planes and crews and it's only getting worse. After obliterating Calgary it only makes sense for the trimming to extend to YEG.

YEG-DEN has obviously seen a big seat bump by UA. It isn't SFO but that capacity helps for intra-US cnx.

[Archyron]

Just flew the SFO-YEG route today on AC. The flight was only ~75% full. There was a fully empty business class row (out of 4), a fully empty exit row and a few passengers managed to spread out such that they got two seats to themselves. Normally this flight is 90%+ full so it definitely feels like Westjet is eating into AC's market share on this route this summer.

https://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Ai...da_CRJ_900.php

In any case, this all doesn't really speak to the economics of the route in the winter when it used to be the only direct connection.

[Coldrsx]

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[Coldrsx]

Terminal​

Terminal Traffic: 628,758 passengers (Year-to-date 3,331,217 passengers) 2.5% (Year-to-date 1.5%)
Domestic 537,490 passengers (Year-to-date 2,555,866 passengers) -0.5% (Year-to-date -2.6%)
Transborder 75,439 passengers (Year-to-date 451,293 passengers) 45.8% (Year-to-date 19.1%)
International 15,829 passengers (Year-to-date 324,058 passengers) -25.7% (Year-to-date 15.9%)
Fixed Base Operators (FBO)​

52,466 passengers (Year-to-date 318,936 passengers) 10.6% (Year-to-date 11.3%)
Total passengers (Terminal and FBO)​

681,224 passengers (Year-to-date 3,650,153 passengers) 3.1% (Year-to-date 2.3%)

[YegFan]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

Terminal​

Terminal Traffic: 628,758 passengers (Year-to-date 3,331,217 passengers) 2.5% (Year-to-date 1.5%)
Domestic 537,490 passengers (Year-to-date 2,555,866 passengers) -0.5% (Year-to-date -2.6%)
Transborder 75,439 passengers (Year-to-date 451,293 passengers) 45.8% (Year-to-date 19.1%)
International 15,829 passengers (Year-to-date 324,058 passengers) -25.7% (Year-to-date 15.9%)
Fixed Base Operators (FBO)​

52,466 passengers (Year-to-date 318,936 passengers) 10.6% (Year-to-date 11.3%)
Total passengers (Terminal and FBO)​

681,224 passengers (Year-to-date 3,650,153 passengers) 3.1% (Year-to-date 2.3%)

Ouch...International stinks! Which flights got dropped from last year's schedule to cause this much decrease.

[taras]

-25.7% is rolling 12 month. YTD is +15.9%. Hopefully, we can keep that up with KLM, Condor and Sun destinations. AC seasonal cut of SFO and downgauge of CUN is not helping though. WS picking up AC's slack with +1 weekly to CUN and +1w to HUX.

https://www.westjet.com/en-ca/news/2...on-region-with

[s211]

Originally Posted by taras

-25.7% is rolling 12 month. YTD is +15.9%. Hopefully, we can keep that up with KLM, Condor and Sun destinations. AC seasonal cut of SFO and downgauge of CUN is not helping though. WS picking up AC's slack with +1 weekly to CUN and +1w to HUX.

https://www.westjet.com/en-ca/news/2...on-region-with

Might that same analysis also apply to the domestic numbers, YTD vs TTM?

[hehehe]

5x weekly KLM this winter is exciting though!

[EdmTrekker]

Originally Posted by hehehe

5x weekly KLM this winter is exciting though!

It sure is.

[Base]

Originally Posted by taras

-25.7% is rolling 12 month. YTD is +15.9%. Hopefully, we can keep that up with KLM, Condor and Sun destinations. AC seasonal cut of SFO and downgauge of CUN is not helping though. WS picking up AC's slack with +1 weekly to CUN and +1w to HUX.

https://www.westjet.com/en-ca/news/2...on-region-with

I could be wrong but I was quite sure the -25.7% is a comparison between June 2024 and June 2023.

[s211]

I hate even thinking this, but I wonder if flights from Europe might be reduced over the next year or two, as I'd think there'd be fewer Europeans travelling to Jasper, etc. Or are those flights far more populated by Canadians flying to Europe? Maybe the impact of the Jasper wildfires will not be too bad?